According to the usual format of a product launch, the company typically spends a long time introducing the product first—its appearance, specifications, features, and user experience—going through everything point by point before finally announcing the price and saving the suspense for last.
However, what happened next took everyone completely by surprise.
At the start of Longyao’s launch event, a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses and exuding a refined, scholarly air walked onto the stage.
He was Qing Yuan, the man in charge of Longyao’s smartphone system development.
Yu Xin had personally recruited him back from Silicon Valley. He would be the keynote speaker at the Imperial Capital launch.
After taking the stage, Qing Yuan first thanked the guests who had come to attend the event, as was customary. Then, the first thing he said was:
“I know what everyone is most curious about.”
“So I’ve decided to announce the price first.”
The entire venue fell silent for a moment before erupting into an uproar.
“???”
“Announce the price first?”
“What kind of strategy is this? Who announces the price before we’ve even seen what the phone looks like?”
“Could it be that they lack confidence in their own product and want to keep people around with a low price?”
“Maybe. But if the product is no good, even a dirt-cheap price won’t help.”
“…”
The audience began whispering among themselves. Even the internet tycoons seated in the front rows wore intrigued expressions.
Only a young reporter in the corner, filming while muttering under his breath, seemed thrilled.
“Holy crap! This is bold! I’ve never seen a phone launch announce the price first!”
Qing Yuan didn’t waste any time. He lightly pressed the remote control in his hand, and a gigantic number appeared on the screen:
[3,999!]
The entire venue went quiet.
Not from surprise, but disappointment.
“3,999? A new domestic brand actually dares to charge that much?”
“Fruit 4 is around that price. Why would anyone buy yours?”
“I thought there’d be some kind of surprise. Announcing a price like that right off the bat—you’re a little too confident, aren’t you?”
“…”
The murmurs from the audience grew louder. Many reporters and invited members of the tech community wore disappointed expressions.
Looks like this was just another company chasing hype. No wonder they had invited so many big names to lend their presence—it was all for publicity.
A price of 3,999 yuan did have its market in China in 2010, and the potential customer base was hardly small. But this was a domestic brand—and a brand-new one at that.
To dare set the price so high was a little too arrogant.
Qing Yuan didn’t panic in the slightest at the audience’s reaction.
“This is merely the suggested retail price for this phone. Customers purchasing from the first batch will receive a certain discount.”
As he spoke, he pressed the remote again.
A red X appeared on the screen, striking through the previous number. A new figure then popped up:
[2,999!]
The entire venue fell silent once more.
Then, a burst of applause mixed with surprise and laughter erupted throughout the hall.
“2,999? That’s a full thousand less than 3,999!”
“That price is a lot more acceptable.”
“Yeah, 2,999 sounds much more reasonable than 3,999.”
“But the price alone doesn’t mean anything. We still have to see the specs.”
“…”
With nothing more than a change in price, they had instantly broken through the audience’s psychological barrier against an expensive domestic phone.
A price of 2,999 yuan was considered mainstream in the current smartphone market. It was nearly half the price of Fruit 4. If the specifications were decent as well, the phone was definitely worth looking forward to.
Clearly, Qing Yuan had no intention of stopping there. He smiled faintly and pressed the remote control again.
This time, the number on the screen disappeared, replaced by a line of bold, eye-catching text:
[We’ve prepared more than just a great price.]
A door at the side of the stage, which had been dark until then, suddenly opened. A spotlight snapped on and shone toward it.
A man in a tailored suit, his signature slicked-back pompadour unmistakable, walked out through the door.
The audience stared blankly for a moment before erupting into deafening screams.
“It’s Hua Shao!”
“Hua Shao from Dragon Nation’s Got Talent! What’s he doing here?”
“Wait, what’s he here for? He’s a host, not a product manager…”
Hua Shao took the microphone handed to him by a staff member and walked to the center of the stage. He gave the audience a playful wink.
“Didn’t see this coming, did you? I’m not here to host today. I’m here to give you some amazing freebies.”
He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.
Over the next thirty seconds, he rattled off a long list of perks at astonishing speed.
“Customers who purchase a Longyao phone from the first batch will receive a 200-yuan cash card for Wanlong Supermarket, 200 yuan’s worth of membership time at Fengquan Internet Cafés, 380 yuan’s worth of Longkan Vision services, an annual membership to Long Dimension Video, eligibility for a lottery to win VIP-section tickets to the season-two finale of Dragon Nation’s Got Talent, free delivery for an entire year from Wanhui Select, twelve complimentary drinks from Qingyin Tea, two discount vouchers from Yuyue House, one free screen protector application every six months, and one free replacement in the event of accidental screen damage within the first year! The total value of all these benefits exceeds 3,000 yuan! They’re available only to first-batch customers, and supplies are limited—act fast!”
The entire venue fell completely silent.
Wait—what had Hua Shao just said? Nobody had caught it all!
Qing Yuan deliberately joked, “Hua Shao, we prepared so many benefits, and you finished listing them in thirty seconds. Aren’t we going to lose a fortune?”
The audience burst into laughter.
“Would everyone like to hear it again?” Qing Yuan asked, turning toward the audience.
“Yes!”
This time, the response was remarkably loud and unified.
Hua Shao shrugged helplessly, raised the microphone again, and repeated the entire list of benefits at an even faster pace.
When he finished, he added deliberately, “That time only took twenty-five seconds.”
The audience immediately roared with laughter.
Qing Yuan put on an exaggeratedly troubled expression and asked, “Did everyone hear all that clearly?”
“No!”
The audience deliberately began to heckle him.
Qing Yuan shrugged. “Then there’s nothing I can do. If you didn’t hear it clearly, I can’t say it again. We haven’t even shown you the phone yet.”
In reality, some people might genuinely not have heard everything, but everyone certainly knew what the benefits were—the entire list was displayed on the giant screen behind them.
The exchange was simply meant to liven up the atmosphere and make the audience remember the perks more clearly.
The big names seated in the front rows were the first to react. They began whispering among themselves.
Lei Yun leaned toward Ji Zhe and murmured something. The two of them laughed at the same time.
Pony Ma, meanwhile, stared thoughtfully at Qing Yuan onstage, seemingly lost in thought.
Perhaps he was thinking about what Liu Yutong had said to him earlier when she shook his hand—asking why he had come.
Could there be any downside to his being here?
The internet tycoons, whose fortunes ranged from tens of billions to well over a hundred billion yuan, were the first to start applauding.
Then the media section joined in, followed by the entire venue.
“I just did the math. If you convert all those benefits into cash, it’s basically like getting the phone for free!”
“That’s insane! At this price, with all these benefits, they’re practically giving it away!”
“I just want to know when it goes on sale. I want those perks too!”
“You haven’t even seen the phone yet, and you’re already eager to buy it?”
“…”
At the very beginning, when the phone’s price was announced, most people’s first reaction had been that it was expensive.
Even after the thousand-yuan discount, it still seemed expensive.
It wasn’t because of the product itself. People simply felt that this was a domestic phone from a new brand.
Deep down, many people believed that only foreign giants—Apple, Samsung, Nokia, and the like—were worth buying at this price point. Although domestic brands such as Lenovo existed, they still hadn’t done much to change the public’s perception. “Made in China” was still synonymous with cheap, off-brand products—brands that could only make feature phones costing a few hundred yuan. Smartphones were a different matter altogether; they simply weren’t good enough to be taken seriously.
Unfortunately, that kind of ingrained prejudice couldn’t be overturned overnight. It would take time.
That was why no one thought the iPhone 4 was expensive, even when it sold for 5,000 yuan—or when scalpers drove the price up to 10,000 or even 20,000 yuan.
But when the first-generation Dragon Glory phone, the Dragon Glory S1, was priced at the same level, everyone thought it was too expensive.
Who in their right mind would spend 3,000 yuan on a domestic phone?
But now that they had seen all these benefits, people suddenly began to look at things differently.
Some had even started doing the math in their heads.
Hmm, these perks are actually pretty generous. If the specifications aren’t too bad, then this could be well worth buying.
Before long, once the applause had died down, Qing Yuan picked up the microphone again.
“I’m sure everyone is eager to see what our phone looks like and what kind of specifications it has.”
“So next, our president of the Technology Business Group, President Yu Xin, will introduce it to you.”
“Incidentally, this launch event is being held simultaneously around the world. President Yu Xin is currently holding a launch event in the United States. What you’re seeing here is a live broadcast, so you can see for yourselves what kind of reaction the Dragon Glory S1 receives in the Western market.”
The lights dimmed once again, and the large screen switched to a satellite broadcast.
The screen showed the Dragon Glory S1 launch event taking place in the United States.
Dressed in a black suit, Yu Xin stood on the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, speaking confidently in a foreign language. Behind her was the same enormous dragon logo.
